How it all started, the question I ask myself quite often. And I do remember piece by piece.
The first thing I remember is I wanted to go to mountains. Any mountains, We have just moved from Central Europe to United States and as my luck would have it we ended up in Midwest plains. I love mountains, I genuinely dislike flatland. Not that there is anything wrong with flatlands, people grow crops and raise cattle, but the scenery kinda sucks. I came from mountains, and I wanted to see them again. It was just around spring of 2001 when my wife and I got sick of tornado sirens and decided to take a vacation in Colorado. And while at it, we decided to take some pictures.
Now this was before the time of fancy digital DSLRs, point and shoots and magic smartphone cameras. I’ve read Idiot’s Guide to Photography, few Ansel Adams books, picked up Canon body, handful of lenses and off we went in a little Jeep for our first American roadtrip. Back then I had no experience or background in photography, it was sort of spur of the moment thing. How it all changed when we reached majestic Rockies. I was taking photos left and right, everything that got in my way had its picture taken. There was so many things I wanted to record on the film. I wanted to capture the memories, keep them forever.
And the fun stuff has started when we returned home. There was endless rolls of film that needed to be processed, images selected and prints printed. What a rush. Till this day we scroll through the images, remembering the Colorado trip and the nature and beauty we have discovered in the Rockies.
From there it only got worse. I developed photography fever. I fell in love with Rockies, the nature and wildlife, and mainly with capturing the moments that come and pass in real life but live forever in images. I took every chance I got to travel to Rockies, National and State Parks, and have been developing my skills.
Fast forward 20 years, photography became part of my life; my backpack with cameras and lenses goes everywhere with me and if anybody asks me today who am I, my answer always is “photographer”. I see life not as one seamless flow but as a continuous stream of moments. Good, happy, bad and sad, no matter what and who the image captures, it stays with me forever.
